Tilbury Power Station

Tilbury Power Station is a 1,600 megawatt supercritical coal plant proposed by RWE nPower with a notional commissioning date of 2014.

In November 2009 RWE npower announced that it had shelved plans for the proposed new coal fired power stations at Tilbury in Essex and Blyth in Northumberland. In a media release it claimed that the proposed power stations "continued to be excellent power generation options for the future." In a media release, the company's Chief Technical Officer, Kevin McCullough, stated that "in the current market, we’re unable to make an economic case for new coal-fired power stations. We are considering the implications of the Government’s policy review on the conditions to be applied to new coal stations. We firmly believe new coal-fired generation should have a role to play in a low carbon economy alongside gas, nuclear power and renewable energy sources."

Conversion to biomass
In April 2011, RWE said it planned to convert the 1,050-megawatt coal-power station to run entirely on wood pellets, reportedly as part of a UK government plan to help reach a European Union target of getting 15 percent of national energy from renewable sources. The conversion, which would make Tilbury the largest biomass plant in the U.K., will be completed by the end of 2011, at which time the power station will be able to produce 750 megawatts. RWE plans to halt the entire station until the end of November 2011.

Britain changed subsidies known as Renewable Obligation Certificates in July 2010 to support biomass plants. Tilbury is one of nine U.K. power plants with a limited number of hours left to operate under EU laws to curb the release of gases linked to acid rain. The stations must close by 2016 or when the allotted hours are used.

British generators that mix biomass with coal are eligible for at least half a renewable certificate for every megawatt-hour they produce. These are tradable and were worth about 49.89 pounds a megawatt-hour in the last certificate auction on March 29. The U.K. is considering changing aid later this year and may create a new band of subsidy to accommodate conversions. The U.K. introduced a carbon-dioxide tax on power emissions starting in 2013 and plans further changes to encourage investment in low-carbon power generation. RWE may also consider whether to close the Tilbury plant and build a natural-gas fed station, according to the company.

The Tilbury station emitted 2.8 million metric tons of CO2 in 2010. While burning biomass releases about the same amount of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as coal, it doesn’t require emissions permits under the EU’s cap-and-trade program. In the five years through 2012, power stations get a portion of EU allowances for free. Tilbury receives an annual allocation of 1.5 million permits in those years, which can be sold in the market if unused. The power station will continue to receive free EU permits through the end of 2012.

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